Van der Waals Interaction in Spherical Structures

Abstract

After a section in which we adapt the general formalism presented in Chap. 7 to spherical structures in neglect of retardation we start by introducing the basic structure elements: a single spherical interface, a spherical shell, a thin diluted spherical gas film, and a 2D spherical film. A general spherical structure can then be constructed by stacking these elements concentrically. The thin gas layer is special; it is used to find the interaction on an atom at a general position in the spherical structure. Then we go through some common structures and present illustrating examples; the examples involve gold spheres, spherical gold cavities, spherical graphene shells, and lithium atoms. We furthermore rederive the van der Waals interaction between two atoms by comparing the full result in the diluted limit with that from the summation of pair interactions.